Countrywomen's Headgear: The Muslin Cap and the Cottager's Bonnet

The Sunday Bonnet

"The pride of the cottager as to have a really good Sunday bonnet. . . . It was invariable in pattern, of black satin, drawn and cored sonewhat in the way of a sun-bonnet. After each Sunday's use, it was dusted with the greatest care and put away in its band-box. It lasted almost a lifetme." (250).

The Muslin Cap

Left: The Sunday Bonnet. Right: The Muslin Cottage Cap.

[Click on thumbnails for larger images.]

"The close-fitting muslin cap showed inside the bonnet and was the usual indoor head-dress. The border of closely-pleated coarse lace edging ws called the 'front' the head-piece the 'caul'. A ribbon went over just behind the front and tied under the chin." [252, 254]

The Head-Handkerchief

"The Cotton handkerchief, almost universal on the Continent as a head covering of women of the peasant class, seems never to have been general in England,
used occasionally, and indeed still used for running out
to hang up the wash or seme odd job about the garden. . . It is a pity
that it should not be in general and constant use.

Etymology claims such use for it, for the word kerchief is from couvre chef, a head-covering." (254-55)

The Sun-Bonnet

Left: The Sun-Bonnet. [Click on thumbnail for larger image.]

"The sun-bonnet was of some light-coloured print, generally
lilac. The making of it is ingenious and pretty, and shows
how the older folk took pleasure in doing dainty work. In
one that I have the forward part measures 3 1/2 inches from
front to back, and consists of thirteen rows of plain cording
lying close together. This piece is made separately. Then
comes an inch-deep pleated frilling put in full, facing
forward and ending in a cording at its back. This cording
has a more various and richer appearance than that of
the front, as it is done 'full' instead of plain. There are
three such lines of 'fulled' frilling and cording, then three
more rows of cording, separated by a small space, something
less than half-an-inch. Then comes the back, which is
formed of the downward gathering together of the stuff to
join the top of the curtain.

The curtain has a length of 48 inches, measured along
its lower free edge, and comes down to the point of the
shoulders. The upper edge is gathered in, to fit the lower
edge of the bonnet. It is finished at the back with a flat
bow, with ends whose length is the same as the depth of
the curtain. There are also strings at the front, which as
far as I remember were never tied.

A loose print jacket, open at the front, I am told was worn
in the older days, but I have no recollection of having seen it. [255-56]

References

Jekyll, Gertrude
Old West Surrey: Some Notes and Memories. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1904.